Dropped $400 on a new band saw blade that's supposed to last forever, now I'm not so sure

Bought one of those fancy carbide tipped blades for my old Hobart back in March. Talked to the rep at the supply shop and he swore it would outlast three standard blades easy. First 200 pounds of pork shoulder went through fine. Then I hit a bone chip that must've been from a badly split spine and it chipped a tooth. Now it's got a nick that leaves a ragged edge on everything. $400 down the drain basically. Should I just go back to the $80 standard blades or is there a trick to keeping these things safe from bone fragments?

2 comments

2 Comments

samf954d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree a bit. Carbide blades are legit if you know what you're getting into. That bone chip thing is bad luck for sure, but the trick is to feel for those hidden bits before you feed anything through. Run your hand along the meat a few times, find em, cut em out. Saves you from this exact headache.

the_nancy4d ago

Man those carbide blades are a TOTAL scam for home use if you ask me. My buddy runs a small shop and he stopped buying them after the third one got wrecked by a hidden bone fragment. Standard blades are cheap enough that you can swap them out without crying about it, just my two cents.